Loading ...As marketers, what goals do you have with social media? Most marketers use social for efforts such as branding, promotion, and visibility. Interestingly, marketers do not usually consider the benefits that search and social provide together.
According to Rebecca Lieb of Econsultancy, most marketers aren’t aware of how closely the two are tied. For instance, when a user signs into Google and searches for a query, he can see real-time social search results in addition to the other results. Specifically, he can see a live Twitter feed and anything that people within his social circle are saying, related to his query.
While still talking about social media, Lieb brings up two areas that marketers have not fully grasped. They are: strategy and execution. So many marketers are jumping on the social media bandwagon with a Facebook page or Twitter account to simply keep up with the times. However, this is not the way that people succeed in social media.
As part of a social media strategy, marketers need to know what they want to accomplish, who they are trying to reach, how they are going to communicate with the target, and more. Many people perceive social as something that is free, but as Lieb points out, nothing is free.
To be truthful, social media takes lots of time and resources. If marketers calculate these factors into their strategy, their chances for social success will increase.
On a different note, Lieb also tells WebProNews that she is encouraged by current developments taking place regarding net neutrality. She believes the U.S. is on the right track to improve the necessity of high-speed and open Web access.
Rebecca Leib provided a very good interview, but I wasn’t sure – exactly – where she was going with her discussion of search engine optimization (SEO), at first. She seemed to indicate that some may be a little to preoccupied with SEO. Immediately after saying that she shared her thoughts on the importance of SEO and its value in helping many of us to found on the Web. I’ll take her overall position on SEO to be someone, who might find my personal point of view as agreeable.
My take on SEO is simply this… It definately has its place in marketing, but – for me – rich content always wins the day. I keep Google Adwords on my Favorite’s Toolbar and run a few words and phrases through its search function well AFTER I have completed my Blog Writing and initial edits. If I believe something may be better stated as a result of what I have found through using Adwords, I’ll make the change. I won’t, however, try to force awkward keywords or keyphrases into anything I write just to satisfy some webcrawling, non emoting SEO robot. My primary job is to interest, educate and/or entertain my readers.
Imagine if our greatest authors and syndicated columnists had to deal with SEO when writing their masterpiece works? Take Shakespeare, for example. For the heck of it, I plugged one of his most famous phrases into Google Adwords to see what they would recommend. According to Adwords “Avoid Telemarketers” whould have been a much better search phrase than “To Be or Not to Be.” Huh??
In any case, Shakespeare really never needed SEO to be found or to become well known. Neither have any other great writers from his day or even those in ours; notables such as John Grisham or Mary Clark Higgins. Great writers are found through the quality of their writing, not the searchability of their content.
That being said, not everyone IS a great writer and many that are may also find themselves lost among the approximately 400 million active blogs some sources say are out there. This being the case, reality dictates that SEO be considered and employed, whenever possible and perhaps in the manner I have already recommended above.
I suppose it is better to have one’s modern day works easily found on the Web than to someday die a starving artist.
Looking forward to your subsequent video discussions.
Please feel free to connect with me on Twitter: ICANEWFRIEND.
Regards,
Marc LeVine
Social Media Director
RiaEnjolie, Inc.
http://www.RiaEnjolie.com
Building an Effective Social Media Strategy
http://dental-health-now.blogspot.com
She believes the U.S. is on the right track to improve the necessity of high-speed and open Web access